PerreaultForever

Skinner's uncoachable (has to go) but I'd like to see a year of Cozens, Power, etc. under a real NHL coach. A coach who can develop the defensemen and the defensive side of the game. I think these guys could still be much better and just might be. Especially Power. He's still really young. We just haven't developed him properly yet.

True, but Dahlin was a consensus number one overall pick. Some people preferred Svechnikov but most "experts" had Dahlin ranked #1. Easy decision for the GM. Steal of the first round there was probably Quinn Hughes going 7th. Rangers did well with K'Andre Miller at 22. Durzi at 52 was a real steal. Wasn't really a great draft though outside of the top end picks. A lot of Pekars.

Likely whatever the tax amount would be in Calgary or wherever else he'd sign. Florida will have to let some people go though that's for sure. Reinhart will be overpaid though. This is a peak year for him and he won't do it again (probably not anyway) and part of his success is the team he's on and his linemates.

I can see that for them. They had a horrible losing skid and couldn't get out of it. Same for Philly. Number of reasons for both teams, but they both cracked under the pressure and the harder hockey often played near the end of the year for actual contenders (or pretenders).

Ya, I always had a problem with the naming of fringe players as captains. How is a guy like that going to convey "you have to work harder" to some snot nosed diva kid who is thinking "I'm better than you old man". If they were cup winners it might be different. It's a critical moment for this team. I really think we either get it right this time, now, or we will fall apart again and have to start all over one more time.

Oh of course the Brind'Amour dream is definitely the top choice and I'd be fine with Berube too. I favour Gallant partly because of Tuch saying good things about him and with Tuch we already have a bridge between players and new coach so it's a smoother transition.

Absolutely no argument. I really liked Benson and he's the best rookie we've had in ages and a pleasant surprise. I never looked at his junior career closely because I assumed he was a top 5 selection and we picked lower so no point. When we picked him I thought he must have fallen for a reason and I assume teams thought he was too small. I'm thinking now some of those teams didn't do their homework since he does not play small and his build will make him a functional smaller player as he develops. I suppose we lucked out due to the depth of that draft. Anyway, yes, he plays the right way, but there are still many things in his game that he needs to work on. For example he took a lot of stick fouls. He needs to work on his timing. He's far from perfect as is.

You can definitely say that, and so anyone who doesn't make the playoffs is "garbage" and that's a valid place to draw the line but I would say they made progress. They were better than the year before. Not good enough, but better. We were not better. We were one point out so anything but playoffs was failure. You can say we were the same, but that's still not "better". Every year you should be better than the year before until you win the cup. That's the measure of success for me. It's often not as fast as a fan would like, but if it's progress it's a measure of success.

They jumped over the Sabres and got closer, really close, and they didn't sell off picks/prospects to do it. I'd say that was a small success. I don't watch them enough to know much more.

Well I guess this discussion will be back on soon. https://www.nhl.com/news/patrick-kane-unlikely-to-return-to-detroit-red-wings-next-season

Well I think it's obvious they "should" be able to do it themselves, but they didn't and they can't so they need the push and to learn what it takes. Seems simple to me.

I'm personally fine with bringing back Krebs BUT it should be near league minimum and short term. Two way even. He should be a marginal depth forward who can work his ass off if he wants to try to earn a roster spot. How much they pay him will tell me a lot about the Sabres. Girgs has to go. Olofsson has to go. Skinner has to go. Bryson and Jost are irrelevant. As is Comrie. At minimum we need a solid 2 way center. Two hard nosed gritty bottom 6 forwards and 1 solid defensive defenseman if Samuelsson isn't up to the task (which he probably isn't). A good veteran back up goalie wouldn't hurt either. Levi should also have to fight his way onto the roster and UPL needs to be challenged to keep his #1 spot. The coach needs to create a proper defensive system and make these guys play hard and aggressive. Some players may not be up to the challenge. Any that aren't need to go.

I didn't read that the same way. I see him saying he talked about accountability and he wanted them to step up so to speak, but he didn't try to force them to change or punish them. The wording "I can punish" etc. tells me he doesn't believe in that and so he just talked. It didn't work. I'd contrast that with the Torts year ender where he talked about the information they gathered on who would respond to what and who wouldn't and how they can improve with that information. In terms of talent we are way ahead of Philly. In terms of culture building we are a big step behind.

I don't disagree at all. It was a thing with the Sabres long before I came to Sabrespace. It's come up over the years many times. Nolan's lunch bucket crew were different but that's about it. My first choice is Gallant without question. As for Granato, no need to get into it as it's done and over but he may have talked about accountability but he did not hold them accountable. Too much "growing and learning as a team" talk and too much calm and patient forgiveness along the way. Too much comfort.

Well maybe that'll be in the minority owner deal. Maybe they will be offered first crack at buying a controlling interest or all of it? I was thinking, maybe it means his kids have no interest in owning a sports franchise and they'd rather have the money? That could be it. (or he doesn't want his kids to have it).

This had me laughing out loud for real today. 32 thoughts suggesting Buffalo could trade for Torts.

This has to be internet garbage. There's no way he could sell it without it making news, real news.

It's a MINORITY interest so it's no big deal. It could very well be a long term plan for an eventual "retirement" and sale way down the road. Potential to sell controlling interest or all interest down the road to the minority buyer and/or their associated group(s) at that time. But that could be like 10 or 20 years down the road.

I'm not predicting anything cause it's playoffs, and anything can happen. I think Florida Tampa will be the best and most entertaining first round series. Jets Avalanche a close second. Boston Toronto is Boston Toronto and it's going to be what it always is. Also interested to see if Vancouver can be a playoff team too or will Nashville continue the improbable. But who knows? It's playoffs. Best time of the year.

Well it is all likely moot, but what I mean is you send a guy down to work on a specific aspect(s) of his game and you don't potentially cost a win on the big club. That's how it's done most everywhere else. I am hoping that we are competitive enough next year that we do not have time or patience for development and learning by mistakes games. Not saying Benson will need that, but if the new coach thinks he's weak in some area it could make him a better player in the long run.

I think your Boy Scout analogy is quite fitting and it really is bad head coaching.

I'd join in and say when during the year did Granato call them out or publicly say they lacked effort? Never. When did he bench big name players who slacked? Never. When did he put them through the ringer in practice and work them into piles of sweat because of their bad effort? Never. It was always "they are learning". As for the Lucic incident, yes, it was a huge thing but I would suggest that if one incident like that can break a team, then they were already broken, it just hadn't been made blatantly public yet. Same thing could happen today by the way. They had nobody to stand up to Lucic then and we have nobody to stand up to Jeannot, or Olivier, Rempe, even DesLauriers etc. Nobody. In recent memory Maroon ran our goalie when he was in Tampa and we did nothing. Heck, we didn't even stand up to Kucherov. It's not the same league, but we are still relatively speaking soft.

They might not be, they could be good actors, but I tend to think season ending locker room clear out interviews are the only (mostly) honest and candid moments we get and so I look at them and look at body language, tone, the way they speak. All of it. It's an assessment, it could be wrong, but during the year they are all in the team mode and say the script. End of the year it's over and they are more candid or so I believe. In the old days more players spoke their minds all year but now in the big agents era everything during the year is garbage. End of the year, sometimes, the guard comes down.

idk but I would have assumed he could. Wasn't it the same with Shane Wright in Seattle and they let him go down?

All that stuff he said about Pegula and how engaged he was and wanted to win etc. etc. which would be all BS if Pegula was planning to sell. Thought that was obvious.